Wish It Was Yesterday
by Lee Velviet
Summary: Sequel to 'The End Of The World' It's a year after Harry's apparent death-things have changed in ways Ginny NEVER could have imagined. What will she do when she has the chance to go back and fix things? (D/G)
1. Default Chapter

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Wish It Was Yesterday 

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_Disclaimer: I own nothing!_

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Summary: SEQUEL to 'The End Of The World'. It's a year after Harry's apparent death at the hands of Voldemort. Things have changed in ways Ginny NEVER expected. What will she do when she gets the opportunity to go back and change things? (D/G, NOT a time-turner fic)

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(A/N/A.K.A. 'Author's Rant': Sorry – this has been a – er, long time in coming ::snorts:: Anyway, first chapter's here. This is going to be a little confusing at first.

If you HAVEN'T read 'The End Of The World', I politely suggest you do, else you probably won't get this. 

It starts after Harry has a big showdown with Moldy Voldie just after the end of his Seventh year. (Big surprise there.) Harry's disappeared, presumed dead – yeah, real original – and Ginny, believing it's her fault, makes a wish that throws her back to her fifth year just before she and Harry finally 'connect'. Hence the title. You can guess what's going to happen, I'm sure.

I know it's not original, and damn it, I refuse to turn this into 'another' time-turner fic – NOT that I dislike them at all, but I'll drive MYSELF nuts trying to do one! I may as well be doing one, but that's beside the point. ::cough:: Plus, yes, there are about a ton of song lyrics in here – I am _incredibly_ sappy, if you haven't figured that out yet. _SORRY!_

Anyway, hope you guys like it, feel free to flame me if you think it sucks, just make sure you tell me 'why' it sucks. Be helpful, you know? ^_~

Thanks! ~Lee

P.S. Finally got my Fan Art scanned – if anyone has the desire to see some, let me know!)

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_"Something just ain't right_

_As I turn out of the light and go to bed_

_Pictures of you in my head_

_Beneath the hazy purple sky_

_You incidentally lied – I gotta say_

_I'd be better off dead_

_Though the good news and the bad_

_The happy and the sad_

_I was always true_

_How come I feel like I'm losing you_

_I wish it was yesterday_

_'Cause today pulls me under_

_Place your bets on tomorrow's game_

_I wish it was yesterday_

_I need a lucky number_

_Well, something's gotta change _

_I wish it was yesterday today_

_If I could only find a way_

_To make you stop and say you won't let me go_

_As you walk out that door_

_Tuesday morning blues_

_I'm working on the clues and you know_

_I feel worse than before_

_As I hang dry the roses that you sent_

_This only just began_

_How come it feels like the end?_

_Something just ain't right_

_As I turn out the light and go to bed_

_Pictures of you in my head_

_I wish it was yesterday today"_

_- The Tuesdays, 'I Wish It Was Yesterday'_

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Prologue 

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"This is something I have to do, Ginny," Harry told her, his green gaze steady on hers. There was no pleading for her understanding in his voice, no regret – they were far past that. He'd been trying to make her understand for hours, but her fear for him was so great she'd steadfastly refused to listen.

Harry sighed roughly and shook his head, turning from her to open the door.

"You can't _do_ this! You know it's no use – he'll just kill you, and then Sirius too! There must be another way!"

He looked back over his shoulder at her, his patience at an end. "I don't have time for this, Ginny. I love you, but if you won't understand why I'm going, then maybe we were never really meant to be."

_"I hate you, Harry!"_ She shouted impulsively, and he froze, the muscles in his back tensing.

 Across the room, Ginny paused, the pain in her chest making her search for something that would make him feel as bad as he'd made her. 

"I – I _knew_ I should have stayed with Malfoy!"

After a long silence, the front door of the Burrow slammed shut so hard it shook the crooked little house to its very foundations.

Ginny stood staring at the door with furious tears burning her eyes. He was actually going to do it!

God, Voldemort's power was at its peak! Everyone knew – and Harry, that idiot, was going to hand himself over because Sirius had been taken hostage…

She felt for a chair and fell into it with a sob, burying her face in her hands. It was a nightmare. Sirius Black was, in all likelihood, already dead.

_She'd just sent Harry off to his doubtlessly agonizing death thinking she hated him._

Maybe Harry was right – maybe they really never had been meant to be.

Ginny rubbed her temples and sighed shakily.

What the hell had happened to 'happy ever after'?

~***~

_1. Poisoned Fairytale _

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One Year Later 

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Ginny was staring at the floor in the attic of the Burrow, something she'd gotten really good at lately.

Her Mum was sifting through the contents of about a hundred dusty trunks and boxes left behind by generations of Weasley's, and she was supposed to be helping.

"Ginny, dear, hand me that vase, will you?"

Ginny kept staring, her head resting on her hand, oblivious to her mother's request.

"Ginny?"

Still, no answer.

Molly Weasley, her bright red-orange hair hidden by a ragged blue bandanna, popped her head up out of the tower of boxes she'd created around herself and sighed impatiently.

_"Virginia!"_

Ginny's brown eyes snapped up at last, and she looked at her mother with disinterest.

"Huh?"

"The vase?" Molly pointed.

"Oh, right." Ginny moved listlessly to retrieve the god-awful ugly brown thing, and pushed it into her mother's grasp.

"Thank you dear." Molly immediately began wrapping it up and repacked it gingerly.

Ginny sighed and looked around the dingy, cramped attic, thankful for the cooling charm her Mum had used to chill the air. It was the end of June, and the air outside was fairly boiling.

"You know, it occurs to me, you could help me with this lot, like you promised – we'd be done a good bit sooner," her Mum said in a light reprimand.

"Er – sorry. I was just thinking," she said in a soft, distant voice, absently running the tip of her finger through the dust on one of the battered trunks.

"Thinking? You were blaming yourself again – and it won't bring him back." Molly commented gently after a moment, and then made a suspicious sniffling sound from behind the boxes.

Ginny crossed her arms, fighting the pang her mother's words brought to her middle, and moved to poke cautiously through an old box which seemed to hold mostly moth eaten robes, trying to avert herself from her familiar dark thoughts.

"I wish everyone would stop talking about him as if he were dead. No one knows for sure if he is – and I'm _sick _of everyone calling him, 'him', or 'he'. His name is _Harry_," she found herself saying crossly, instead. "He practically saved the world and no one seems to be able to bring themselves to say his bloody name out loud!"

Molly's head popped up again. _"Virginia Weasley!"_

"It's true," she continued bitterly, pushing the clothing aside. "And Draco – "

_"Don't you dare say that boy's name in this house!"_

Ginny paused and glared at her mother through the dust motes swirling thickly in the air. This wasn't the first time they'd argued about this particular subject.

"He did _not_ kill Ron, Mum! He didn't deserve the Kiss!"

"I won't talk about this with you again, Ginny! Let the dead rest!" Molly stood up, tears tracking through the grime on her round, suddenly pale cheeks, and she quickly turned and left the silent attic. Even the resident ghoul seemed to go quiet and still in her wake.

Ginny sat down hard in the middle of the floor, but she couldn't bring herself to cry. She hadn't tears enough to shed for those she'd lost. 

Harry, Ron – and Draco.

~***~

_"Every now and then it just remains all the same_

_We try to move ahead but get held back_

_In the game, somehow now I'm living_

_In the past_

_I'm still with you, please don't forget_

'Cause this ain't over yet 

_Every now and then I seem to do nothing but wrong_

_I blame it on my pride yet that as such, is almost gone_

_Everyday there's choices to be made_

_And memories are lingering, the future seems to fade."_

_-The Tuesdays, 'Changing The Moods'_

~***~

After a long, unbearably solemn dinner with her mother and father that evening, Ginny returned to the attic, drawn there for some unknown reason.

Or maybe it was just that it was quiet, and held memories of a happier time.

She lit a lamp with her wand, and settled hesitantly before Ron's old school trunk. The pain she felt at her brother's loss was still too fresh – but she had to be close to him, some how.

She unlocked the dusty trunk, her hands shaking, and opened it slowly, listening to its lid creak. She caught herself smiling at the sudden memory of Ron telling Hermione why he never oiled the hinges to stop it making the ear piercing noise.

He'd rolled his blue eyes and shrugged. "If it's making that bloody awful racket every time it's opened, I won't have anyone sneaking about trying to have a look in it, will I?"

To which Hermione had pointed his flawed logic, going on about Silencing charms and what not – and then, very abruptly, a sharp look had come into her eyes, and she'd asked exactly why he was so worried about anyone having a look in it.

Ginny shook her head, remembering the ruddy blush that had come up on Ron's cheeks.

She sighed deeply, and pulled out the neatly folded sets of black school robes that lay folded on top of the trunks contents.

It was nearly too much. Everywhere she looked inside the trunk there were memories that hacked away at her self-composure.

The scorch mark on the cuff of one of the robes, the slightest hint of that terrible cologne Fred and George had given him one Christmas, a worn, scribbled on, bright orange book of loose-leaf parchment with the Seeker from the Cannon's still flying doggedly across the front.

There were souvenir's from the one Quidditch World Cup he'd gotten to go to, and several funny little gifts he'd saved, from Harry and Hermione. She found his rubber-banded collection of cards and remembered Ron's frustration at never having been able to come across a Rowena Ravenclaw.

When she came across the sugar quills, she had to take a deep breath, and set them aside. They'd been his favorite, aside from chocolate frogs, and Bertie Bott's – 

A dog-eared black book suddenly captured her attention, and sat back on her heels, frowning.

Ginny opened the book, and saw that it was filled with photographs.

The first pages were plastered with moving, waving pictures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in their first few years at Hogwarts. Ginny turned those pages quickly, and frowned breifly at one of herself in her first year, looking gawky and pale and frazzled.

The last pictures were mostly of Ron and Hermione, but there was one of her and Harry, at their last Yule Ball. The lighting was dim, but she could make out their expressions – and, she swallowed hard suddenly, the figure of Draco far in the back of the picture, nearly unnoticeable, looking at them.

He'd gone alone that year, she recalled, and the first glance she'd had of him in his dress robes had made her choke on something she'd been saying to Harry. She'd watched him, distracted, almost all evening, as he danced and flirted with half the girls present. She'd been hurt, and jealous, at first, but then she'd caught him watching her with a smug smile, and realized she'd been playing right into his hands.

Finally noticing she'd been holding her breath, Ginny closed the book, and put it back. She started shifting things, to put the objects back, when she caught sight of a couple of old Playwizards in the bottom and snorted.

No wonder Ron hadn't wanted anyone looking in his trunk!

She shook her head, an unwilling smile on her lips, and reverently closed the trunk lid.

She stood up, and turned away, wondering if she'd ever get used to them being gone, of living her life in memories, with her dreams torn and tattered like something out of a fairytale gone wrong.

As Ginny walked toward the doorway through the maze of boxes, the toe of her shoe caught on something, and she tripped, falling forward.

A dozen thankfully half empty boxes tumbled down onto her when she finally landed, and she moaned, feeling the points of objects pushing bruisingly into her skin all over her body.

_"Owwww,"_ she groaned, moving her limbs experimentally, pushing boxes off. 

"Ginny? What are you doing up there?" Her mother called in concern up the stairs.

"What's it sound like," she muttered, pushing herself to her knees and wincing. "I'm trying my best to bloody kill myself."

"What?"

"Nothing – I just dropped something. I'm fine," she called back moodily.

"All right – just try not to break anything up there, will you?"

Ginny exhaled roughly and rubbed a particularly sore spot on her shin. _"Right."_

As she slowly started righting things, knowing her Mum would flay her if she left the mess, a dull gleam caught her eye.

Ginny squinted in the low light, and bent over, pulling a small trunk that had toppled over, upright. 

There was a soft, nearly imperceptible tinkling sound, and she was almost afraid to look, for fear she'd broken something – but when she looked inside, instead of seeing the broken glass of some family heirloom as she was expecting, she found a small square of crystal, about the size of a playing card, wedged into the rotted velvet lining of the trunk.

Frowning, Ginny reached in and yanked the object loose.

She brought it into the light and turned it. As she touched it, an odd luminescence seemed to glow from within it.

It was flat, had rounded corners, and strange inscriptions carved into it's surface.

It looked like something Hermione would be interested in.

She'd been meaning to pay the other girl a visit for the past few weeks, anyway.

Maybe she could tell her what it was.

Curious, Ginny scrabbled around, found an old, discarded velvet pouch, and pushed the square of crystal into it.

"What have you got there, dear?"

Startled, Ginny swung around to see her Mum standing in the doorway.

"Oh, er – this. I found it." She pulled the crystal back out and held it up. "Do you know what it is?"

Her mother blanched slightly, and she fought the urge to drop the crystal.

Was it something bad?

"Mum?"

"I – it's nothing, dear, really. An old trinket – "

Ginny wasn't falling for any of that. "Mum, there's a reason you were in Gryffindor, you know – you _can't_ lie. Now, tell me what it really is."

Her mother seemed to hesitate, and Ginny looked at her pointedly. "Mum, I can just take it to Hermione, you know – "

"_No!_ No, for goodness sake, don't do that! Besides, she wouldn't know what it is anyway," Molly mumbled, and stepped into the attic.

The ghoul in the far corner started in just then and Molly shushed it threateningly.

Molly looked at Ginny and sighed. "It's a _Wish_."

Ginny frowned again. Had she heard her right?

"A what?"

"It's a wish, dear, do open your ears." Molly looked at her daughter's confused face impatiently, and held her hand out for the crystal. "I just wasn't sure if you were ready for it, yet."

Ginny reluctantly relinquished the thing, watching as it's odd bluish glow instantly turned to a dead black as her mother took it into her hands.

Taking a deep breath, Molly explained quietly, "It was a gift. Generations ago, you know. From one of the Fae folk."

Ginny felt her eyes widen. _"A Fairy?"_

"Yes, dear. One of my so many great, great grandmothers rescued her from a dragon – this was back when the family lived in Scotland, you know – "

"It was Great Grandma Pegeen wasn't it? She was the one always running around doing that highland warrior princess bit, wasn't she?"

"Hush, have some respect - and let me finish. Anyway, she gave her this in thanks, and told her that she could have one wish, and only one, of it, during her lifetime. Then it could be passed down to her daughter, and so on." Molly ran a finger across the cold stone and smiled remorsefully.

"You can see, I've already used mine. See how the light is gone?"

Excitement was already building inside of Ginny. "Are you saying, I can wish for _anything _I want?" It was too good to be true! Instantly possibilities began racing through her head – 

But no. Her mother was shaking her head, a serious look crossing her softly lined face.

"I know what you're thinking dearest. Bit it can't bring back those who have already passed on."

Ginny felt a bitter disappointment rise. "Then what good is it to me then?" Suddenly, the dozens of same old 'if-onlys' and 'what if's' started running about her head, making her crazy.

"Ginny – "

She sat down in a rickety old rocking chair and let her shoulders droop. "It's a good thing I didn't have that as a younger girl. You know very well what I would have wished for," she said ruefully, a slight smile on her face.

Molly winked. "Why do you think I've had it up here hidden away all these years?"

Ginny closed her eyes tiredly, and felt her mother push the 'wish' back into her hand. 

"It's yours now, dearest – just use it well."

Ginny looked back up at her mother, biting her lip. "I don't know if I really want it, Mum."

"I know. It's a great responsibility, isn't it? I know you'll choose wisely." Molly patted her shoulder and turned away with a suspicious wetness in her eyes.

Looking at the glowing stone in her palm doubtfully, she inhaled deeply.

"What did you wish for, Mum?"

Her mother only shook her head.

"You needn't use it just now, you know. I was thinking, maybe you should finally see about those Medi - wizard classes at the University. We could go up to London tomorrow."

Ginny nodded absently, deep in thought.

"You could make some plans, you know, start thinking about the future."

She thought about all that had happened since her fifth year, and shook her head.

"I don't like to plan too far ahead. You never know what's going to happen."

Molly nodded, and turned away again.

"I love you, Mum." Ginny found herself saying impulsively.

"I love you too, dearest," Molly whispered back, and disappeared out the door.

Alone, she looked down at the stone in the guttering lamp light, and after long hours of reflection, finally made her wish.

~***~

_"Fate does not come to meet us; rather, we turn to meet our fate."_

~***~

There was complete silence, no sensation whatsoever.

So it was wildly disconcerting when  she suddenly felt as if she'd fallen from a great distance, to land with a jolt in a both well known, yet oddly unfamiliar place.

She couldn't see - something was blurring her vision.

Ginny reflexively blinked, and felt hot tears spill down her cheeks.

Her heart jumped into her throat as she realized someone was speaking to her.

"-  bloody blind, aren't you?" 

She gaped at boy in front of her, watching avidly as he turned away, running her disbelieving eyes over his back, touching on the soft, silky white-blond hair curling slightly behind his ears -

 "You think I don't know what you're going through? What it's like to love someone until your heart _bleeds_ from it, and to know they don't return it, don't even _think_ about it?"

She caught her breath, nearly overcome by her emotion by the sight, a sob choking her throat.

_"D – Draco?"_

~***~

_And the end of all our exploring_

_Will be to arrive where we started_

_And know the place for the first time_

_- T.S. Eliot_

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TBC 


	2. 2 Fool's Journey

2. Fool's Journey

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Disclaimer: I own nothing. Repeat, nothing.

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"A moment is a living thing, possessing it's own identity and meaning. Not only does a moment have particular qualities, but it has a past and a future which belong under the general umbrella of those qualities. There are situations and choices in the past which have led up to that moment, and of which that moment is the consequence." – The Mythic Tarot

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_"Afraid of opening my deepest_

_Thoughts to you_

_I hid them in a jar and _

_Pushed away your love_

_I wonder if you knew"_

_-The Tuesdays, Gone With The Wind_

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Draco eyed her warily.

Instead of just walking past her as he had at that moment in the past, he seemed to pause, and actually look at her – but how could he not? She was near sobbing and shaking like a leaf.

"What's wrong? Are you sick?" He took a step towards her and raised a hand to brush the hair from his eyes. "For God's sake, woman, don't _cry_."

Typical Draco – he made it sound like an order instead of a request.

Ginny could only continue to stare at him, both amazed that she was actually there, and terrified of what she was feeling at the sight of him felt her heart fall to her feet as Draco started towards her. She scared to move, afraid that she'd do something that would affect the future in a negative way.

She closed her eyes momentarily, thinking back on this wish she'd made – so this was it then.

This was the point in time when she'd made her mistake.

"Ginny?"

She gazed back at Draco, knowing there was a touch of awe in her eyes as she looked at him. _He really was there._

_God, had it really been all her fault?_

Was this it? Was she supposed to work things out with him? Had she made some crucial decision here?

"Ginny, what is it?" He was standing right in front of her, one hand raising to her cheek – she couldn't stop staring at him. Her eyes touched on the redness on his own cheek, and remembered with a startled breath that she'd hauled off and slapped him moments earlier.

She'd forgotten about that.

"I – I'm sorry I hit you," she heard herself say in a tight, husky voice. And she _was_ sorry. Especially with the knowledge of what would happen to him in the future if she couldn't change things.

She only had one chance, and she didn't know what to do – 

Draco was staring at her speculatively. "You're sorry?" He withdrew his hand from her tear stained cheek, crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "First you slug me, then you act like I'm going to flay you alive – what's going on? One minute you're going on about Potter, and the next you're crying like there's no tomorrow and apologizing and staring at me as if you were some stupid Muggle seeing a ghost for the first time – " he clamped his mouth shut. He seemed to realize he was rambling, and Draco did _not_ ramble.

Ginny knew he was waiting for her to say something, but she didn't know what to say.

"D-did - _do_ you love me?"

She definitely hadn't meant to ask _that!_

Draco just rolled his eyes and made a frustrated growling noise. "_I give up!_ You _are_ bloody blind!"

When he made as if to shoulder past her, she finally moved and put a hand on his arm.

"You did. You really did." She said wonderingly. "You _did_ care." Those feelings she'd gotten – she had thought about them later, breifly, thinking maybe she'd known, subconsciously that he'd been trying to tell her something - 

But why had he betrayed her? Had he realized she really was in love with Harry, and done it in reflex? Had he done it to hurt her for not loving _him_, instead?

"Were you that hurt?" She murmured out loud to herself. Then she realized she'd said almost the very same words to Draco that Harry had said to her on the stairs that night.

_"Did I hurt you that badly?"_

He had. So badly that she'd deliberately gone and tried to hurt him back…

Was she supposed to have gotten together with _Draco_?

But Harry -

"Gin, what _are_ you going on about in that head of yours?" Draco sighed boredly above her. "You look as if you're almost ready to cast up the accounts, if you know what I mean."

Ginny found herself smiling at him. How had she missed it? It was right there, practically screaming at her! She could see it now, in his eyes, behind the coldness of his expression.

She really had been innocent.

_Draco Malfoy had been in love with her._

And she'd been blind to it, just as he'd said – but she'd had feelings for him too, else she wouldn't have reacted like she had that day in the library, felt so betrayed, and instinctively turned to Harry that night…_for comfort. Was that all it had been?_

The truth hit her, and the tears began again. She'd been a stupid young girl, immature and foolish, clinging to dreams of Harry Potter – and Draco had been _right there._

"Damn it!" She cursed out loud. Had she caused it all? Sirius's abduction, Ron's death, Draco's resulting conviction, Harry's disappearance? It was hard to believe that she could have made one mistake that had affected so many others in such a catastrophic way.

Maybe Harry had been right…

"Ginny – "

She looked up at Draco angrily. It wasn't his fault, really but – "Why did you have to be so damned proud? Why couldn't you have just come out and said the ruddy words? I was a sixteen year old girl – what the hell did _you _have to be so nervous about?"

"Okay, see, now you're just talking crazy," Draco snapped back, his voice lacking it's usual lazy cadence. His high, sharp cheekbones suddenly seemed flushed, his eyes fierce. "Speaking in the past tense – "

"Yeah, well you're the one _blushing_!" Ginny shot back, trying not to smile, raising a hand to scrub at the wetness on her cheeks.

She watched his jaw tighten, and then his hands were on her shoulders, pushing her into the wall, his arms bracing on either side of her.

"Idonot_blush_," he bit off, his face inches from hers.

Ginny looked deeply into his eyes, for the first time, seeing that his eyes really weren't all silver, but a soft, barely noticeable blue gray, with daggers of pale silver shooting through the centers.

She listened closely to his breathing, which was somewhat ragged, and again noticed things she hadn't seen before, in her inexperience. He was so tense his muscles were nearly trembling. 

_He was nervous,_ she thought in disbelief. 

"Just say it," she whispered, staring back at him steadily.

Draco's eyes widened, and he seemed to withdraw into himself slightly.

"You have to give a little here," she told him softly. "I'm not a bloody mind reader, you know. _Say it_."

"Sod off," he muttered darkly, and began to move away.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and trapped him. "No, not that."

"Let me go Weasley – "

Ginny shook her head. "Not that either."

"You're insane – "

"Definitely not that." She trailed her fingers through the hair at his nape, and watched his eyes go soft, which had to be some kind of miracle.

"Don't touch my hair," he tried to say sternly, bringing up his hands to tug her wrists away.

"What? Do you mean like this?" She used her fingertips to massage the hard knot of muscles there, and he seemed to melt a bit.

"Stop it," he breathed roughly, closing his eyes, his lips inches from hers. "You're messing it up."

"You love it – stop lying," Ginny said back, unable to believe she'd had this power over him all along and hadn't even known it.

"Please Draco…Just say it."

He took a deep breath, lowered his head, and kissed her.

The sudden leap her heart made in her chest at the contact was so painful she actually thought for a second it might kill her.

How could she have forgotten this?

What's more, how could she have walked away from it, even if had been acting like a rat?

She closed her eyes and  leaned into him. His lips were soft and warm, and she shivered in reaction – his hands dropped from her wrists to wrap his arms around her waist and draw her to him in an embrace.

Soft, silky strands of his hair brushed against her cheeks and jaw, and she was so lost in the sensation of being near him that she nearly missed it, his barely there whisper against her lips.

_"I love you, Ginny."_

She caught her breath, and then opened her eyes and watched him as he stepped away from her.

He'd actually said it.

Draco ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to straighten it, and snarled at her.

"Are you happy now?"

Ginny smiled at him and crossed her arms, leaning against the wall.

"Almost."

He gave her a dirty look and stalked away.

Ginny waited for a moment, and called after him, "I'll see you at breakfast."

He mumbled something irritably under his breath, and disappeared hastily around a corner.

Ginny took a deep breath and turned to enter Gryffindor tower. 

~***~

She was pacing in front of the fire when Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally entered later that evening. Ginny was glad they'd taken so long n coming up from dinner – it had given her a chance to try and reacclimatize herself.

She had tried to prepare herself to see the two boys again, but she still found herself tearing up when they walked through the portrait entrance, Ron laughing at something Harry was saying.

She was also unprepared for the look of vehement dislike her brother gave her when she hurried up to meet them.

"What do _you_ want?" Ron asked scathingly as she stopped before them.

"Can I talk to you guys – in private?" She asked, feeling sick to her stomach with nerves. She knew she had to tell them something, but what? About the future? About her wish?

It seemed so far away, now…

Hermione looked hopeful, while Harry broke into a hesitant smile and Ron only snorted and gave her a mistrustful look that clearly stated, 'traitor'.

"Please?" Ginny gave Ron her best sad little sister look, and watched him break, biting back a gleeful smile, and barely keeping herself from grabbing both boys and hugging them to bits.

It was so good to see them again…

"Aw'right," Ron muttered gruffly, shucking off his backpack onto the floor with a thud. He scratched his head, and narrowed his blue eyes. "But you better have one hell of an excuse."

Hermione smiled at Ginny, and turned back towards the entrance. "The library should be empty this time of night – "

"Not as empty as you might think," Ginny muttered under her breath as she walked behind them, wondering if Draco would be there, and exactly what she was going tell them.

~***~

TBC

(A/N: Thanks for the reviews on the first chapter, guys – I know this is confusing, but I'm hoping it makes sense. It should be pretty interesting to see Ginny retracing her steps, and to see what she does differently compared to what she did originally. Hopefully, you'll think it's interesting, too, lol. Thanks for the encouragement. ~ Lee)


	3. 3 Road Of Trials

_~***~_

_Disclaimer: It's not mine, don't sue. _

_~***~_

_3. Road Of Trials_

_~***~_

_I know we never meant to fall_

_But the moment that my eyes met yours_

_Our hearts went tumbling_

_Before we knew what happened_

_And now that I'm looking back_

_You know I get the feeling that_

_We started givin' up _

_Just to keep from givin' in_

_Oh, we've been down the roughest roads_

_I know we've gone so far, and come so close_

_The Tuesdays, I'll Be Here_

~***~

Ginny couldn't keep herself from marveling over the fact that she was actually back at Hogwarts, and in her fifth year no less.

She walked along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and kept catching herself staring at little things that she'd remembered noticing in the past – tiny cracks in the walls at certain points, the trick step on the stairs, the suits of armor squeaking as the helms turned to watch their progress – it was all so strange, the width and breadth of it all, after having existed in such a tiny, controlled space for so long.

She breathed a great sigh of relief when they reached the Library and found it thankfully empty. She collapsed against a table after a cursory look around. It was a good thing Draco wasn't around – she didn't think he would buy anything she had to say easily.

Ginny raised a hand to her forehead and tried to stop staring at Harry – the three of them were giving her odd looks, but there was a particular, concerned warmth in his green gaze that made her remember –

She pulled her eyes from his abruptly. They dropped unwillingly to his hands.

How many times had he touched her, soothed her, held her with those hands – she recalled how they felt on her skin, slightly rough from years of Quidditch, but always _so _incredibly gentle - his fingers curled into a tight fist as she watched, and her eyes shot back up to his face, and the look hidden in his own made her catch her breath.

Draco's weren't the only person's feelings she'd been completely blind to. How had she been so _stupid_? Slouching about all selfish and pathetic, feeling sorry for herself because Harry had blown her off. All those times she'd thought Harry had been annoyed with her, or ignoring her, there had been signals – she knew them now, as well as she'd come to know him.

Ginny groaned in confusion and reached for a chair. She knew she and Harry were well suited, in more ways than one, as they'd found out – another groan – but it wasn't meant to be. But she couldn't deny her happiness at seeing him again, and the feelings she had for him still. This was not going to be easy…

Meanwhile Ron was growing ever more impatient._ 'Big surprise there,'_ thought Ginny wryly. She couldn't bring herself to be annoyed – she still far too relieved to see him alive and well.

Tomorrow she'd probably want to slug him just like always, but tonight she felt inclined to swallow any ire his words produced. She couldn't spend the precious little energy she had left being angry with Ron – she needed it to try and work around the huge tangle in her mind.

God, what was she going to tell them?

~***~

Draco looked up from his book with an irritated growl when he caught the sound of footsteps entering the library.

It wasn't that he found the text in his hands incredibly engrossing – in truth he was having an exceptionally hard time concentrating on it – but he wanted to be alone, and he wasn't in any mood to listen to some trysting couple snogging in the stacks.

Ginny had been acting insanely earlier, and her actions in the corridor had been altogether far too unsettling. He'd been caught off his guard completely. It was as if she'd changed into a completely different person nearly before his eyes, a person who knew too much about him, and also knew exactly what she wanted.

Apparently it had been him.

Her assertiveness had thrown him, he had to admit. He'd become so used to her guarded, innocent, confused state of mind since she'd regained her memory. She'd been so easy to manipulate, a constant source of amusement – 'befriending' her had been just another way to annoy Potter.

But then she'd slugged him that day in Potions - and he'd fallen, hard. He hadn't admitted it to himself for a long time – but little by little he'd come to realize how much he'd felt for her. It was there, all the signs – she was one of the very few people who could make him lose his head completely. That day he'd slugged her back, the instantaneous, uncharacteristic remorse he'd felt when he'd struck her back, the crazy impulse to kiss her in the passage, and the ominous ache in his chest when she'd looked so lost and begun to cry. There had been so many times he couldn't count. Noone else had ever had such an effect on him.

Who else could have prompted him to nearly throttle her in front of the bloody Headmaster himself?

_"So, am I to understand you beat up Mr. Malfoy, Miss Weasley?"_

A very small, very unwilling smile crossed his lips as he stared at the book in his hands. He still felt slightly murderous whenever he remembered that particular afternoon…and then that evening, when he'd seen her sitting on the steps, looking as if her world had just ended…

_"Feeling sorry for yourself, Weasley?"_

_ "What do you want?'_

_"Absolutely nothing. I just wondered if you were all right - really, am I that bad…"_

_"I hate it when you try to act kind."_

_"Oh? Tell me, would you be happier if I slapped you again?"_

._ "Too late – I already asked you to throw me out of a window – you missed your opportunity."_

 _"It's not that bad, you know - Potter's frigging blind, even with those stupid specs," _

_ "What, are you out for my blood, Malfoy? Sorry, the diner's closed." _

_"Have you told them, yet, Weasley?" _

_ "It's none of your business, Mal-ferret – and just in case you were thinking about blackmail, don't bother. I don't know how you found out – listening at the door after the Headmaster dismissed you, no doubt, you dirty slithering sneak! I'm telling them the minute I can get them alone-although, I don't doubt you'll go running off at the mouth about it to everyone else."_

 "You think you know everything, do you? Well, you don't."

Draco found himself clenching his teeth. Her accusation had actually hurt – not that it hadn't been entirely true…

Draco scowled at the memories and set the book aside. He wasn't going to sit there all night and subject himself to remembering just how Ginny Weasley had caused his heart's downfall – and this after a long lecture about self-control.

" - stay detached. You have to separate yourself, if not physically, then emotionally. Love is a weakness, and it will screw you rotten every chance it gets…"

'Too bad you can't follow your own ruddy advice, Malfoy,' Draco thought to himself in disgust.

"- okay? Listen, I'm sorry I gave you all the brush off – "

" _'Brush off?'_ You turned traitor, you little brat! Might as well have run off to join you-know-who!"

Draco frowned, and rose silently from his chair by the windows. He crossed the floor and peered around one of the bookcases to see Ginny sitting tiredly in a chair at a table near the entrance, surrounded by Gryffindor's own Dream Team.

He watched Potter watching Ginny, and felt the same old urge to rip the boy's throat out with his bare hands. He saw the indecisive movement the other boy made, as if he might go to her. 

_"Do it,"_ Draco urged him in his mind, a black rage suddenly twisting his gut. _"Do it – touch her, Potter, so I can finally have the perfect excuse to waste you – "_

"Shut – up, Ron! I said I was sorry – besides, what I have to tell you right now is far more important than some piddling immature rivalry!"

Draco blinked, and relaxed slightly. He didn't think he'd ever heard Ginny sound so authoritative. 

From the silence, he didn't think any of the others had either.  

He watched Ginny stand up, and was again surprised by the apparent change in her. She began to pace, and although her head and shoulders drooped as if she were exhausted, she was carrying herself with the easy, attractive grace he'd seen in women several years older.

He narrowed his eyes speculatively as he ran his eyes over the girl/woman who was Ginny and yet not.

Something was rotten in Hogwarts…

~***~

"Jesus, all right, Gin. Don't get your bleedin' tits in a wringer," Ron grumbled after a long quiet moment.

_"Ron Weasley!"_ Hermione chastised him in a hiss.

Ginny couldn't suppress a grin. "That's our Ron," she murmured, shaking her head.

"Ginny – what is it you have to tell us?" 

She paused in her frantic pacing to look up and see Harry watching her solemnly.

"I – I'm scared if I tell you, you'll think I'm crazy. I'm not even sure if I should be telling you. I mean – "

"Did Malfoy try something?" Harry asked abruptly, his tone suddenly as icy as death.

"No! Draco – no, he didn't try anything for God's sake…" Ginny rolled her eyes, and pressed her fingertips to her temples. She took a deep breath.

"I…I'm not really me."

There was a long silence. Ron snorted.

"What I mean is, I am me, I'm just not the me that you know, right now – "

"Malfoy put you up to this, Gin?" Ron asked, his eyes narrowed fiercely.

"Ron – "

"Do we look like a bunch of frigging berks, here? What the hell are you trying to pull?"

"I'm not trying to pull anything, Ron! It's hard to explain! I'm Ginny, yes, but my mind – I'm from the future. Our future!" Ginny threw her hands up in the air. "I had this wish, and I - I came back to try and fix things – "

"Oh, this is bloody brilliant," Ron sneered, crossing his arms. "How long have you and Malfoy been planning this?"

Ginny wanted to bang her head into the wall in frustration. "It's true!"

"Tell us exactly what happened, Ginny," Hermione insisted.

"I can't believe you're listening to this!" Ron snapped in outrage, his cheeks a livid red.

"Ron, I came back to save you!" Ginny blurted stupidly.

Her brother paled significantly. 

She cursed. "Listen to me. A year after you graduate, Sirius Black is abducted by Voldemort – "

Harry's dark brows suddenly snapped together. "How do you know about Sirius?" He looked over at Ron in panic. "How does she know about Sirius?"

Ron looked at him helplessly and shrugged.

"It…it doesn't matter. The point is, he's captured, and Harry, you…you go after him, to save him. Ron and Hermione go too, but as far as we know, you never knew they followed," Ginny paused, and wet her lips.

"We?" Harry asked quietly.

"Hermione and I – "

"Oh my God," Hermione suddenly whispered, sinking down into a chair.

"A-are you saying…Harry and I …_died_?" Asked Ron in a hushed voice.

Ginny closed her eyes, and returned to her own seat. Her silence was answer enough.

"Was it Voldemort?" Harry asked tonelessly.

"I don't know, Harry. We didn't even really know if you were truly…gone, really. You were missing for over a year after. Sirius was murdered before you even got there, Hermione told me. And Ron…" she trailed off and looked at her brother with teary eyes. 

"Go on, I want to know," Ron said gruffly.

"Hermione said that all the Death Eaters were present. A-and that Draco Malfoy was among them."

"I _knew_ it!" Ron breathed, his blue eyes flashing. _"That_ _frigging tosser _–_ "_

"Hermione said it 'looked' like Draco was the one who killed you, but she couldn't be sure," Ginny said in a rush. "She said everything was dark, and too much was going on to be sure…but they convicted him, gave him the Kiss anyway, because he wore the mark - " her throat became too choked for her to talk.

"_He_ killed _me_?" Ron roared in furious disbelief, his pride apparently very bruised.

"_Oh my God_," Hermione said again, her voice trembling. It had hit the other girl hard, her news. It was rare to see Hogwarts future Head Girl so uncharacteristically inarticulate.

"Was he defeated?"

Ginny hardly dared to look at Harry. He was watching her closely, his green eyes suspiciously bright.

She rested her forehead on the heel of her hand and stared with blurred eyes down at the tabletop. "Yes – presumably. When you disappeared…so did he."

It was deathly quiet for long minutes, and Ginny felt horrible. Maybe she'd been wrong to tell them – 

"I don't know about you lot, but I'm all for getting pissed to the bloody gills," a cold voice said from nearby, making them all jump.

Ginny leapt up, nearly overturning her chair, her heart thudding in her throat. "Draco!"

~***~

Draco now understood that old saying about eavesdropping.

He was destined to be as good as dead before he even turned nineteen.

What was that load about him bearing the mark of Death Eater?  There was no way in hell. He might have killed Weasley, he didn't doubt that, the boy doubtless had it coming – but there was no way he was becoming a brainless automaton like his father and rest of Voldemort's followers…

He waited for Ron Weasley to start shouting, and try to throttle him where he stood, but the room remained silent.

"This is all my fault," Ginny muttered, a hand over her eyes.

Draco swallowed, and crossed his arms in a deceptively careless fashion. "Is it, now? Why don't you explain, Ginny dearest. I'm sure we all just _dying_ to know," he forced himself to drawl boredly.

Granger sobbed suddenly, and lifted her head to glare at him, before she looked up at Weasley with her heart in her eyes and stood up, racing from the room in tears.

"'Mione, wait!" Ron called, and tore after her with a curse.

Potter sent him a death's head glare. "That was totally unnecessary, Malfoy,"

"Piss off, Scarhead. Looks like it's your lucky day, eh? Now at least you have a goal in life. You know how much time you've got left to try and get laid before you finally kick off – "

"Knock it off, Draco," Ginny said dully. "Just stop."

Draco continued to glare back at Harry for a long moment, and then he sighed. "Well? Out with it, Gin."

Ginny twisted her hands together nervously. 

"He's right," Potter surprised him by saying "We need to know what's going on, Ginny. Why do you think it's all your fault?"

Ginny raised her head to look at them both, pushing her long curls over her shoulder. Her voice sounded agonized. She really was convinced it was all her fault.

"It's my fault because…I took the wrong path, I guess you could say."

Draco felt his heart wrench to a stop. His eyes shot to Potter's, and he saw a triumphant gleam in the hated green eyes.

"You think it all happened because you chose the wrong…person?" Harry prompted gently, obviously thinking she was just taking the blame.

"No, I _know_ it's my fault. I wished to be taken back to the moment in time when things changed, when whatever happened to make things turn out badly, did."

Draco stared at Ginny, saw her soft, velvety brown eyes linger on him just an instant longer then they should have…and then he very slowly smirked.

It all made sense now, Ginny crying in the corridor over nothing, Ginny speaking in the past tense, Ginny acting so out of character –

He looked back at Potter, and saw the other boy's head drop forward slightly in defeat.

The smirk turned into a full blown wicked grin, so wide it hurt his face. There was no doubt about it, anymore.

Ginny was his…

~***~

TBC

(A/N: I'm so very sorry about the wait everyone! I apologize if this wasn't the best chapter, I've had so little time! I have to go, but make sure you let me know your opinions on this chapter, because they do matter very much!!! Thanks so much! ~Lee)

  
  



	4. 4 Rites Of Passage

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Disclaimer: I own nothing! I'm just borrowing! ^_~

~*~

(A/N: Hey guys – it's me. Just wanted to thank you all for the enthusiasm with which you greeted this story – I know it's awkward, but I'm still finding my way with it, and hopefully it'll get better as it goes. I really appreciate you taking the time to make comments and reviews, and just as a warning there is ONE use of a certain four letter word in this chapter ::gasp:: and also, this chapter is positively **rife** with sappiness and angst – _again._ -^-__-^-  ::ducks:: _Sorry, sorry…_BUT this chapter _is_ mostly about Ginny and Harry having a bittersweet goodbye, which is _really_ sad because Harry doesn't even have firsthand knowledge of their relationship! ::sniff:: It's just paving the way for Draco and Ginny. Anyway…so sorry if it's lame, and sorry about the shortness. ^_^)

~*~

_4. Rites Of Passage_

~*~

_"Every stage of life leads to the next one, and although we may understandably attempt to hold back time and remain in one comfortable place, it is not within our power as mortals to turn the moving cycle of life into a stagnant hiding place – whenever we feel we have reached the goal and achieved our designs, another deeper or higher goal materializes beyond it, so that every end is really a preparation for something else, and we begin the cycle again." - From The Mythic Tarot_

_~*~_

Ginny hadn't said a word about a possible future relationship growing between her and Harry, but both boys knew exactly what she'd been talking about.

The sudden pain in Harry's expression made her stomach turn in on itself, and she felt like a complete ass.

_Why couldn't she have just kept her mouth shut?_

Ginny put a hand to her temple again, and dared a look between her fingers at Draco – her breath again left her just at the sight of him, even though she wanted to slug him again for standing there with that unsettlingly triumphant grin on his perfect face.

She cringed inwardly as he opened his mouth, knowing whatever came out of it would sound acerbic and self-satisfied.

"I can't tell you how nice it is to know that that overdeveloped sense of courage and valor of yours got you absolutely nowhere, Potter."

Ginny felt her jaw drop in outrage. No one could ever accuse Draco Malfoy of having a grasping understanding of the use of tact!

Even as she opened her own lips to say the words that came flooding forth, she knew she was going to regret it, but her temper and her need to defend Harry got the better of her.

"It got him far enough," she snapped tauntingly in a cold voice, her eyes flashing.

Harry's dark head snapped up at her inference, his eyes wide behind his glasses as a red flush crept up his cheeks.

Draco's expression changed from gloating to stricken to murderous in the space of a single instant.

Ginny snapped her eyes closed and tightly fisted her hand in her hair. _What the hell was wrong with her? What had she been thinking, saying such a thing?_

Footsteps sounded across the floor, and she opened her eyes reluctantly to see Draco stalking past Harry, his expression now icy enough to make her blood run cold.

After he had exited the Library, she and Harry were left alone, staring at each other uncertainly.

After a very long silence, Harry cleared his throat, still looking more than a little embarrassed.

"So, I'm taking it you know how I really feel about you right now," he said in a quiet tone.

Ginny felt her tears return again as she looked at him, and dropped her head to stare at her feet. Everything felt so odd, even her own body – she had reached her full height and weight already by this time, but there were subtle changes that wouldn't happen for another year or so, that the absence of was making her feel a bit lost.

A familiar embrace enveloped her suddenly, and she gave herself up to it completely, relieved in a way she'd never again thought she'd be after Harry's disappearance, more than reluctant to let go.

Because she knew she had to end it between them before it had even really begun…__

~*~

Draco knew better than to look back through the tapestry – look at where his earlier eavesdropping had gotten him -  but he couldn't help himself.

He saw just what he'd been expecting, and felt the muscles in his abdomen clench painfully despite his best efforts to hold onto his abrasive anger.

Ginny had her head buried in Harry's shoulder, and the boys arms were wrapped around the girl so tightly it had to be paining her. But Ginny didn't seem to be caring overly much…

The crippling hurt he felt at the sight that greeted him made him shake his head in bewildered denial. 

He let the tapestry fall, and suddenly found himself sitting in a boneless heap on the cold stone floor, his back against the wall.

The overload of emotions nearly crushed him – he wasn't used to feeling so much.

Draco leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, feeling the overwhelming need to break something. Preferably Harry Potter's skull.

'You're acting like a fool,' he desperately tried to tell himself. 'How can you lose your head so completely over a girl who's so beneath you? How can you actually feel love for her, a common Weasley?'

It was a good argument, one he'd made many times before, but it was getting old and worn by that point. There wasn't any use in denying it – he'd already spoken the words to her out loud.

But just because he was in love with her, it didn't mean he had to like it.

And just what the _hell_ had that snide little statement of hers back there meant? That she and Potter had actually had _sex_?

The thought of it alone was enough to make him think about committing a bloody murder!

_'Let it go, Draco,'_ he told himself out loud, running a hand through his hair. How could he lose his head over something that hadn't even happened yet? Something, that according to Ginny herself, _couldn't _happen?

Draco had to focus on getting himself under control for several minutes – he couldn't walk back into the Slytherin common room with his emotions there for all to see – his housemates could smell weakness like a rabid animal, and if he went in there feeling like he did now –

He stood finally with a deep breath, surrounding the confusing wealth of emotions in his chest with a wall of self control that had the blissfully numbing effect of ice.

If he hadn't known it was already impossible, he'd have turned his back, and forced himself to just completely forget her very name.

But why even bother trying? She wouldn't be in Potter's arms for very much longer - she _was_ his now, after all.

Or she _would_ be, anyway.

Draco masked his fierce expression with a careless smirk and forced himself to start walking away as a couple of first year Slytherin girls rounded a corner and started moving towards him. He had to concentrate on other things, now – like how and why he'd have allowed himself to become a follower of Voldemort in the not so distant future…

He'd deal with Ginny in the morning.

He didn't have to bother forcing the smirk by the time he passed the giggling first years.__

~*~

Ginny and Harry awkwardly broke apart as they heard noises outside the library tapestry.

A pair of whispering Slytherin girls entered the room, and Ginny met Harry's eyes in silent agreement before she followed him out into the hall – Draco was nowhere to be seen.

Ginny felt Harry take her hand, and was overcome with such a wave of nostalgia that she nearly began crying again.

They walked in mutual silence back up to the common room,  which was thankfully empty by then.

Ginny found it very ironic that Harry unknowingly led her to sit on the very window seat where everything between them had started, to end it.

She watched Harry lower himself onto the cushion next to her, and draw up his knees to his chest in an instinctive gesture of self-protection.

"It doesn't seem at all fair, you know," he finally said out loud, staring at the floor. "I haven't gotten to see anything of what our life together would have been like – "

Ginny recalled their last words before his disappearance and shook her head. "It's best this way."

"I know…I know that you've had a year to get over it as well…but I haven't." He looked back up at her with fierce green eyes and she had to glance away.  "I don't know what happened between us, Ginny, but I know it had to have been good."

Unable to talk, she only nodded. It had been.

"Are you sure this is how it has to be?" He asked with quiet urgency, leaning forward to place a hand on her leg. "Maybe there was some mistake – "

Ginny stood up, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the chill coming in from the window. "It can't happen, Harry – it's not worth the cost of your life."

"Don't you think I should be allowed to be the judge of that?"

"It's not, Harry!" She turned on him, blinking against her tears. "Do you want to know what I said to you right before you left? Do you?"

"Ginny – " Harry stood, shaking his head. "Don't."

"No, I'll tell you – I said I hated you, Harry. I told you I hated you, and you never came back!"

Harry was watching her helplessly, and she bit her lip to keep from saying anymore.

"No, Harry," she said sadly in a near whisper, "believe me – it _is_ better this way…"

_ 'You never deserved that.'_

She watched him swallow hard, and turn away – but she stopped him.

"Harry – I just want you to know…I am very sorry for the way I treated you – have been treating you lately. I was just so torn up and confused – "

A small, bittersweet smile ghosted across his lips.

"Don't worry about it. It never happened, Ginny – none of it."

_"It never happened, Ginny – none of it..."_

Ginny waited until he'd disappeared up the stairs to his dorm before she again collapsed on the cold window seat and cried until she couldn't anymore.

~*~

Draco lay awake in his bed later, knowing he'd never in a million years sleep that night.

He was too busy wondering what the hell Ginny and Potter were up to.

A nice little reunion fuck, maybe?

Draco growled, and rolled onto his stomach, punching his pillow so hard a seam split and feathers came bursting out. He cursed, and gave the offending pillow a heave, watching it fly across the dark dorm room and smack Blaise Zabini right in the middle of his annoying, snoring face.

The boy woke up with a shout, spitting feathers angrily, and Draco smirked in satisfaction at having been able to spoil at least one other person's night.

"PEEVES!" Zabini shouted in fury, succeeding in waking up the other, more temper mental occupants of the room as well, who were not at all happy with their sleep being disturbed.

Draco watched the ensuing chaos with dark amusement, until a half dead looking Snape staggered in, eyes blurred from sleep, bellowing for quiet and voicing death threats that made everyone go pale and dive for their respective beds.

Draco felt only slightly better, however. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Ginny – and his mind was whirling with the information he'd received earlier. Considering all that he and Ginny had been doing together lately, he'd nearly dismissed everything as just being some kind of joke of hers – but it had soon become very apparent that it was no joke.

With the knowledge of  his possible future came fear, sharp and unrelenting, and wholly unwanted.

Sure, he'd entertained thoughts of becoming a Death Eater as a stupid kid, when he was desperate for his fathers affection, hatefully jealous of the attention Harry Potter received. He'd grown past that, mostly – there was no glory in killing, no satisfaction in serving under a Dark Lord destined to be defeated…

No, there was no way he'd ever join Voldemort – for all his power, the old man was weak – and then there was the fact that Draco was loyal to no one but himself.

He was mulling over the night's events, and the possible consequences, when he finally drifted off into a troubled sleep.

_~*~_

_TBC_


	5. 5 Harbinger

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Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!

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(A/N: Ahhh! More quotes! Big shocker eh?

_"The world is full of unfinished novels sitting in desk drawers, where the first twenty pages started out good. True creative confidence can only be found if the idea is put to the test and stretches the individual to the utmost." ~ The Mystic Tarot, on the Third Of Wands_

I really liked this one, too:

"We need conflict in our lives in order to create…there is a mysterious relationship between the workings of the creative imagination and the presence of healthy conflict in our lives."

Guess that explains why I'm so desperate to write after enduring the endless chaos of my family. ::snorts:: 

BTW – many thanks to you guys for your reviews and your e-mails! ::dances excitedly with idiotic grin on her face:: Let me know if this is going in a good direction or not – your opinions do matter!

The bits about Clairvoyance potion are from Llewellyn's Magical Herbalism.)

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_5. Harbinger _

~*~

_" – are you even alive in there?"_

Ginny was ready to take a swing at her Mum – it couldn't possibly be time to wake up yet. Her head was fuzzy, and there was absolutely no way she was moving from her bed until at least noon.

"Go 'way – 'still dark out," she mumbled, dragging her blankets closer to her chin.

"Ginny, wake up! You're going to miss classes! And the only reason it's still 'dark out' is because you're buried under about twenty pillows _you stubborn berk!"_

Ginny dragged her eyes open – they felt glued shut and gritty.

She must have crying in her sleep again – 

_'Poor Harry…'_

_"Classes?" _Ginny threw the pillows off her head, and sat up so quickly she knocked her head into the person's standing above her_. "Owww!"_ And then – "_Ron? Ron, it's you!"_

_"Ow! Bloody **hell**!"_ Ron backed off from her, rubbing his reddening nose with a scowl. "Yeah, it's _me_ – who'd you think it was? And yes, _classes _– you hadn't been out of school that bloody long, had you? No? Well, then, you'd better get cracking!"

Ginny stared up at her older brother in awe as the night previous events returned to her in full clarity.

"Classes?" Ginny groaned. Fifth year, fifth year…her mind raced as she tried to remember the curriculum. Oh, what did it matter anyway? She'd still have to put up with Snape – _and the O.W.L.'s._

_"Not the O.W.L.'s!" _ Ginny hurried to bury herself in her blankets again. Lord, the O.W.L.'s were coming up – it was _inconceivable_ that she'd have to endure them _again! _"I can't deal with this right now, Ron – not after everything that happened last night!"

She really just wanted to lie around all day and cry over Harry.

It was the one thing she was good at.__

"Yeah, well, you shoulda' thought of that before you made that wish," Ron said gruffly above her. "Don't forget, you've got N.E.W.T.'s coming up in a pair of years too, if you think the O.W.L.'s are bad! Now come on, up with you! You'll barely make breakfast as it is, and you're making me miss it as well, if you hadn't noticed!"

Ginny sat up with a tortured moan, and looked at her brother through bleary, barely open eyes. "I'm heartbroken – Ron I don't think you understand – I can't make it through an extra two and a half terms of school – it's downright vicious, and - hey! You're not supposed to be in here anyway!" She said accusatorily. "This _is_ a girls dorm!"

"Well it's empty now, ain't it? Hermione was busy – " a slight flush stained Ron's cheeks at this, and Ginny couldn't suppress a snicker – "and I knew you wouldn't get up without a bit of prodding. We figured you'd be knackered, and having a bit of a lie-in –"

"Fine, I'm up, I'm up." Ginny grumbled as she dug her way out of her cozy nest and shivered as her bare toes touched the floor. The coldness of late winter was a bit of a shock to her system after having suffered through the long hot days of June. "But I'm _not_ happy about it! God, it's positively baltic in here – "

"I'll wait for you outside."

"Go on down to breakfast – you don't have to wait on me," Ginny said, shivering. Where were her blasted robes? "I haven't been out of school so long I've forgotten the way!"

" But I believe you _have_ forgotten just how many people around here are disliking you at the moment, Gin – believe me, you _want_ me to wait outside!" Ron grinned at her lopsidedly.

"No one bothered me before," she said thoughtfully, frowning, thinking back on her turbulent fifth year. Of course, there'd been Draco – and then Harry had smoothed things after they'd become a couple -

Ron crossed his arms and cocked his head to one side. "Now why do you suppose that is? Me 'an Harry wouldn't let 'em, that's why! You didn't even know, did you? Well, come on then! I'm so hungry I'm about to gnaw my own leg!"

Ginny stared after her brother speechlessly. She'd thought Ron had hated her guts when she'd been wandering around after Malfoy – 

_"Hurry up, _will ya', Gin! Geez, girls…"__

~*~

The day couldn't get any worse – she'd found herself again seated next to a silent Draco at breakfast - Harry had barely spoken a word to her, and that had hurt more than she wanted to think about.

The entire great hall that morning had been staring and whispering comments behind their hands…

And now…it was nightmarish, cruel – fate had to be paying her back for her wish. It was unfathomable that she was once again back in the clutches of – _Professor Snape! _

Ginny eyed the Potions Professor warily as he paced at the head of the room. Draco had again surprised her by not saying a word about the evening before when he'd lowered himself into the seat beside her.

"Today, class, at the _request _of Professor Trelawney,  we will be brewing some Divinatory 'Clairvoyance' potions," Snape sneered in thinly veiled disgust. Obviously he hadn't been given much of a choice in the matter.

Ginny was surprised. She didn't recall having done Clairvoyance potions on that day in the past. She stared at Snape, uneasy – she wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not that the things were already being affected by her new choices.

"Now, as we covered the uses of  Clairvoyance potions some time ago, and you lot have no doubt forgotten them since, " the man snapped, " I want you all, with the obvious exception of Mr. Malfoy, to turn to page eight hundred and ninety-seven in your texts, and read that section before we begin."

Ginny barely kept an annoyed frown from darkening her brow, and lugged her potions text from her backpack. She set it on the table with a huff, frowning at it incredulously. Had the thing always been that bloody heavy? And thick – god, she could brain a person with it if she could've managed to lift it to lob it!

She became aware of someone staring at her, and she turned her head to catch Draco eyeing her in amusement. Whereas before, she would have been immediately suspicious  of his attention, and felt forced to say something biting, she found herself grinning at him stupidly.

The gift of her honest, open smile seemed to throw him, and he frowned a bit, blinking several times before he cleared his throat, and stood in what seemed a very hasty manner to Ginny, to help Snape begin setting out necessary ingredients.

She watched him for a moment in bemusement before focusing her eyes on her text with difficulty.

Clairvoyance Brews –  The inhalation of vapors rising from specific ingredients boiled within spring water in a cauldron in hopes of entering a psychic state in which to call out predictions.

Well, that definitely sounded like something Professor Trelawney would spend her time doing, Ginny mused as her eyes skimmed the page.

Spring water, Mugwort, bay laurel leaves, cinquefoil - 

It all seemed simple enough. Ginny looked back up at Draco and caught him watching her again – unbelievably he quickly dropped his eyes.

She shook her head. Draco Malfoy – acting _shy?_

The world was definitely coming to an ugly end.

~*~

Ginny looked at the bubbling cauldron before her and wrinkled her nose.

Who would want to inhale _that?_

All that kept the potion from being complete was the addition of the cinquefoil.

She was busy checking the flame below the cauldron as Draco prepared the last ingredient – when she straightened to look at him, she shook her head and took the leaves from him as he began crushing them.

"They're far more effective if you leave them whole," she told him in an absent murmur, and dropped them into the steaming cauldron. "Crushing them halves their potency,"

Draco crossed his arms and gave her a slight glare, and she remembered she was supposed to be a year behind him.

"Sorry", she whispered in quick apology. She was going to have to be more careful about what she said.

Draco looked like he very much wanted to say something cutting, but that was just when their professor chose to start speaking.

"Well, well – I cannot tell you all how _impressed_ I am that everyone of you managed to _boil_ something without making it explode in our faces," Snape drawled before them. "Now, I suppose we must test them for effectiveness…well, what are you all waiting for? One breathes, one takes notes on the results for future reference! Is it that hard? Get to it!"

Ginny rolled her eyes and then snuck a look at Draco, who still hadn't said a word – she figured it had to be some kind of personal record for him, not to have insulted anyone in such a long amount of time.

"Er – "

"I'll take the notes," Draco announced arrogantly.

Ginny shrugged. "So it's okay for _me_ to have _my _brain melted if this isn't right? It _has _been a while since I attempted any kind of potion you know."

"Don't be a stupid bint – of course it's right. _I _helped you make it didn't I?"

She looked at him condescendingly and then shrugged. "All right – but don't laugh if I start mumbling about stupid things,"

The look he gave her suggested that it was clearly too late for that..

Ginny leaned over the cauldron hesitantly, her awareness of Draco hovering just over her shoulder, and very, very near, making her extremely  nervous.

"Well, go on then – we haven't got all day," he said impatiently.

Ginny sighed and then closed her eyes and took several cautious deep breaths.

At first she thought that nothing was going to happen – but then she became very relaxed, very drowsy, calm and peaceful.

_Note any pictures and symbols,_she recalled reading. There wasn't much of anything at first – just a black blankness that stretched out, certainly nothing even vaguely prophetic –

That was when she saw it – the large black dog. At first she thought it was just Sirius, but as the vision became clearer, she felt her heart stop – no, it was – 

_"That's a – a –"_

_"What is it, Ginny?"_ Draco's voice sounded as if it were coming across a very great distance.

_"- a Grim."_ She managed to keep her voice low, and even, so as to not draw attention, but the sight of the Grim had her senses reeling. Ginny felt her eyes pop open in panic as she tried desperately to escape the vision, but she couldn't see anything but the blackness, and the Grim, stalking her – no, not her, something else, something – no _someone._

For a sickening moment she thought of Harry, but it wasn't him. The person the Grim was shadowing was – _Draco._

She gasped and took a step backward, shaking her head in wild denial. The thought that she'd come this far, saved Harry, only to lose Draco, staggered her.

What was happening?! "Ginny?" 

She heard several surprised shrieks as she stumbled against the desks behind her and then everything went completely dark.

~*~

TBC


	6. 6 What Fools

~*~

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

~*~

(A/N: I kinda' borrowed one of Ron's lines from the CoS trailer, hee. I'm such a dork…::shakes head:: Warning: Pointless angsty chappy ahead. See if you can pick out the other bit I 'borrowed' form GoF. Twisted to meet my own needs, of course. Evil, evil. Tsk, tsk. ^_~ A lyric free zone. It's a miracle!)

~*~

_6. What Fools…_

_~*~_

Ginny arrived at lunch later with an aching head and ears ringing from the verbal lashing which Snape had offered up as 'constructive criticism'. In passing out, she'd managed to ruin at least three of the other students' potions, and the Professor had been very unhappy with her, to say the least.

She wrinkled her nose as she looked at several sticky strands of hair and caught the scent of the cold, congealed potion still clinging in patches to her robes. She hadn't taken the time to clean up – she was in too much of a hurry to get to the others and tell them what had happened.

Mostly she just wanted them to tell her she was crazy and offer up some kind of explanation about why she'd seen what she had. 

Unfortunately she didn't think it would be anywhere near that simple.

Ginny discovered as she walked into the Great Hall, that she felt a bit lost without Draco walking by her side. He had left her with barely a word as they passed the library, just after she'd reluctantly explained to him about the vision. She hadn't wanted to tell him about  His face had gone blank, and he walked off into the library with some terse excuse about an assignment. She couldn't blame him for wanting to be alone.

Harry looked up at her briefly as she approached the Gryffindor table, and then dropped his eyes to his lunch, which looked untouched.

Ginny sat down across from him, next to Ron. She knew everyone in the hall was watching, but she didn't care. It wasn't anyone's business but her own where she sat during meals.

She was about to speak when someone down from them let out a yelp, and she turned her head just in time to see Hermione duck – and a large brown ball of feathers flew right into her face.

Ginny winced away, and when she opened her eyes, she saw with surprise that it was the family owl. The poor bird was laying in the center of a dessert platter, his feet straight up in the air, one clutching a white envelope. To any who weren't familiar with the bird's tendencies to collapse after even a short distance, the bird looked like it had dropped dead right in the middle of Ron's favorite jelly filled pastries.

"Why it's Errol!" She exclaimed. The ancient owl had finally passed on early in her Seventh Year, and she was happy to see him again.

"Bloody bird's a menace," Ron growled in disgust as he reached for the letter.

"What is it?" Ginny asked as she watched him open the envelope.

"Nothing. Just Mom asking how we are…" his eyes skimmed the parchment and he looked around it to grin at her. "You're looking a bit rough – expecting a Howler, were you?"

"No," Ginny denied grouchily, rubbing her temples. "If I'm looking rough, it's because Snape had us inhaling potion fumes all morning – and then I had a lovely herbal bath." She plucked at her stringy hair ruefully.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked suddenly, his voice sounding urgent.

Ginny looked up at him quickly, and saw his cheeks turning pink. "I'm fine, thanks," she told him quickly.

Harry pushed his glasses up on his nose and she looked away before she could smile at the familiar sight.

"Listen, I – I need to talk to you all about something. It's about Draco – "

Ron snorted. "Big frigging surprise there," he grumbled. "What? You finally decide to marry the git or something?"

Harry snorted and then coughed, choking on his juice, and Hermione rolled her eyes. Ginny frowned impatiently.

"Ron – I saw a Grim." Ginny stated in a harsh whisper.

She watched her brother go pale, and reach up to tug nervously at the knot in his tie.

"A-a Grim?"

"You couldn't have," Hermione announced matter-of-factly. "They don't exist."

"What's it got to do with Malfoy?" Harry asked coolly, "And why should we care? Besides, what if you just saw – er…_Snuffles?_" He blinked then, as another thought occurred. "It wasn't shadowing _you_, was it?"

Ginny shook her head slowly, unsurprised by Harry's reaction. "No. I don't think so. There was no way it was Snuffles – believe me, Snuffles has _nothing _on this thing." She stared at Harry for a long moment to make sure he understood how serious she was.

He stared back and then looked away.

"If it's something that might affect Draco, it could very well affect the rest of you as well. I don't think I saw everything I was supposed to in that vision – "

"Vision?" Hermione frowned thoughtfully. "What do you mean, exactly?"

Ginny swiftly explained about the Clairvoyance potion. 

"Clairvoyance potion? Professor Trelawney?" Hermione sounded disgusted. "Ginny I'm sorry, but there's your explanation - "

"Can we just talk about this somewhere else?" Ginny asked pleadingly as her headache escalated. 

"You sure you're all right, Gin?" 

She looked at her brother and felt her felt her expression soften. "Of course I am. But I can't lose you  – _any_ of you." Ginny chanced a look at Harry, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "Not again."

~*~

Ginny rubbed her eyes. The light streaming into the room was aggravating her already massive headache.

At least she was clean again…

"Ginny, what the hell did you _see?_" Ron paced in front of her, running his hands through his hair, which was already tangled and mussed.

"_I told you_, I don't know, Ron – I mean, it's hard to tell – it could have been something from my future – or the new future – either way, I didn't like the looks of it!" Ginny said tiredly.

She, Draco, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the deserted Transfigurations classroom out of a need for privacy.

"That's the bloody understatement of the year," Draco muttered moodily from where he stood apart from the rest of them, leaning against the wall. 

"I have to say, you're taking it pretty well, Malfoy," Ron announced from Ginny's side. "Considering that screaming episode you had back in first year – "

"Ron, stop it," Hermione said insistently, tugging on his robe sleeve. "Now isn't the time – but I don't really see why the rest of you are so worried about this. Grim's are just a silly superstition – "

"Go have yourself a good look at one, and tell me they're just a silly superstition, Granger," Draco snapped crossly, flinging his hair out of his eyes. "Ginny saw one, and I was standing in its bloody shadow – tell me that's not a portent of death!"

"She was inhaling herbal vapors – there's no telling – she could have been seeing the result of some kind of chemical reaction –" Hermione argued.

"We have to get more of that potion to make sure – " Ginny cut in, but no one seemed to be listening. She sighed with annoyance and rubbed one throbbing temple.

Harry made a valiant effort on her behalf to stop the inevitable argument on the rise, but he found himself completely ignored as well.

"Leave it to a _mudblood_ to write off a prophecy of death as being some kind of scientific anomaly!" Draco was sneering.

"Ron, stop!" Ginny saw Ron move, tried to grab at her brother's robes to no avail – he had his hands on Draco in an instant, and slammed him against the wall.

"Call her that again, Malfoy," Ron said in a soft snarl. "Go on. I'll save whatever it is after you the trouble of finishing you. I've been looking for an excuse for a long time - "

"What? Going to make me burp slugs for a week, Weasley?" Draco smirked nastily. 

"Ron, this isn't helping anything," Harry commented in a strained voice over his friends shoulder, although he too looked as if he'd like nothing more than participate in Draco's demise. Ginny had to admire his show of restraint.

"Im not taking anymore crap from you, Malfoy!" Ron growled, his blue eyes furious.

"You'd better get on with it then, because I'm promising you, right now, there's nothing left to keep me from burying you if you back off," Draco snarled back, his eyes lit with promise.

"Stop it right now!" Ginny stalked forward, and reached up, flinging her brothers arms away with supreme effort. "Knock it off!"

"And you!" She turned on Draco with narrowed eyes, but he was already walking away from her. Furious, Ginny ignored the bewildered, angry looks from those behind her and followed right after him.

When they got out into the hall, it was thankfully empty. "Draco, stop – stop,  _please!"_

The tall blond paused, but kept his back to her. She approached him angrily, but felt it drain away as she noted the trembling stiffness of his back.

Ginny sighed, and stepped around to face him, putting hesitant hands on his arms. He refused to look at her.

"You just have to keep taking bites out of people, don't you?"

"Bite them until they bleed from it,' Draco said coolly in agreement, sounding very much as if were quoting someone.

"I can understand you have every right to be upset – "

"Upset?" He laughed softly, and she could feel it in her stomach. 

Ginny wanted to tell him it was all right to be scared – he had to be, who wouldn't - but she didn't think he would appreciate it much.  He ran a hand through his hair, and she caught a flicker of fear in his eyes before he again turned away from her.

She couldn't get over how young he looked, how suddenly vulnerable – how young they looked. She'd been very surprised by the changes in her own face when she'd looked _all_ into the mirror that morning. The lines of her face were softer, slightly more rounded, and the dark circles and hollows that had come to shadow her face were gone. 

It had been her eyes that had truly looked out of place though – the same clear shade of brown, but older, and wiser. It was to be expected, though. After all, she'd been eighteen before she'd come back – and she'd been nearly the epitome of innocence at fifteen, even though she'd thought she'd experienced the worst that life could throw at her…

"Don't worry – we'll find out exactly what it was I saw – we'll repeat the potion,' she told him impulsively, in an effort to make him feel better. "I won't let anything happen to you – "

He cut her off with a short, derisive laugh. "You think I'm scared, do you? Scared, " he scoffed. "You think I'm scared of dying?"

"It's not wrong to be afraid, Draco," she told him gently, and he looked at her in disbelief.

"I'm not afraid of dying, Ginny." Draco said smoothly, as if her were talking about the days weather. "I'll admit, your little - revelation last night threw me. Noone wants to hear they're going to be dead and flat out before they even reach their majority, but I've lived with death my whole life. You said it yourself – having a Death Eater for a father exposed me to my own mortality early. So it wasn't entirely unexpected…and this. Well – there's no point in worrying just yet, is there? What will come will come – and I'll have to meet it when it does."

He looked down at her from beneath her lashes, his eyes flashing like moonstones in dimly lit corridor. "It's not the cursed Grim I'm worried about, anyway," Draco told her in an uncharacteristically placid way.

"No?"

"No. If I'm 'scared' of anything…it's that I won't have the chance to show you what you were obviously missing with Potter."

Ginny rolled her eyes – how had she forgotten about the sheer size of his ego? "Can we not talk about this right now?"

"What's wrong? Am I embarrassing you, Gin?" He took several lazy steps away from the wall towards her, and she took a reflexive step back. He hovered over her until she felt her cheeks pinken.

Draco lowered his head until his lips nearly touched her ear. "You're blushing, you know," he murmured. "It makes me wonder…Potter hasn't touched you, has he? You made it sound as if he had…I wanted to rip his head off with my own hands. Do you have any idea how long I laid awake last night, wondering…but he never took you, did he?"

Ginny swallowed, and drew in a shaky breath as an icy-hot shiver went up her spine. "I – leave it to you to sound so dramatic. Anyway, it's none of your business…we shouldn't even be talking about this." Her tone became mocking. "Don't you think you're a little…young?"

His hands captured her wrists as he brushed his cheek against hers. It was so quiet in the hall, all she could hear was their breathing – and it made her nerves stretch taut.

"You made it my business when you insinuated that you'd let him touch you," Draco growled dangerously in her ear. "Don't even bother  to try pulling that age nonsense with me. Tell me the truth."

Ginny bit the inside of her cheek, and he released one wrist to raise his hand and brush her hair away from her neck.

"Tell me." His breath fanned warmly against the sensitive skin beneath her ear, and she felt her tongue tie itself into knots.

"Er…we…uh…" Ginny caught her own breath as his lips skimmed the side of her neck. "Draco…_stop_." This was insane. She had more sense than this, more control – but though Draco may have looked younger, he still seemed wise beyond his years. In more ways than one.

"What's wrong? Can't take what you were giving me last night?" He asked mockingly. His lips opened against her skin then, and she gasped and jerked away from him.

"Sorry? You were saying…?" A sly smirk emerged on his lips.

"All right!" She exclaimed breathlessly. "Harry and I never actually…did it."

"I knew it," Draco drawled calmly, quirking an eyebrow, though his own breathing sounded less than even. "He probably didn't even know what to do with you once he finally got hold of you."

Ginny felt her temper rise swiftly, and narrowed her eyes. "I never said we didn't do _anything_," she snapped in angry retaliation, feeling awful even as she said it. "We were waiting."

"Waiting for what? Until you got married, I suppose, like good little Gryffindors," he spat sardonically.

Ginny gave a short nod. "Five points to Slytherin," she returned just as sarcastically. "Got it in one."

"What the – " He stared at her incredulously. _"You're telling me you were bloody engaged to him?" _Draco roared loudly.

She winced. His pale features had turned an alarming shade of purple. "Draco - calm down – "

_"Calm down?"_ He roared again, and began to pace before her. "This can't be happening," he was snarled beneath his breath. "Why would you even think about….I can't believe…affianced to that bloody four-eyed git – "

"Yes, well – it's all over now, isn't it?"

He looked over at her abruptly at the bitter finality in her voice. "You still love him," he said accusingly.

"You don't just stop loving someone, Draco," she told him miserably, and watched the anger drain from his expression. "It was difficult, towards…towards the end. We weren't getting on well,  and then Sirius was taken, and he had to – " Ginny stopped and blinked rapidly against tears. You have to understand. We were together for over three years, Draco. We knew each other better than we knew anyone, nearly. I know it wasn't meant to be, now. It's been a year, for me…but seeing him again, now…"

"What are you feeling for me, then?' He asked her tonelessly, pushing a hand through his hair and fisting it. "You say you can't just stop loving someone… how do you think I must have felt when you ran off to Potter, Gin?"

Ginny raised her chin a notch and fixed him with a glare. "You didn't care – you just went off bragging about how you'd gotten what you were after, and how bored you were with me," she finished bitterly.

Something like regret appeared in his eyes before he shook his head. "What did you expect from me, really, Ginny?"

"If only – " she clamped her mouth shut and turned to walk away but he followed her.

"'If only', what, Gin?"

She ignored him, reaching for the door leading back into the Transfigurations room. He caught her shoulder, and she turned back to face him with a sigh.

"Do you love me?" He asked this as if he were doing something as mundane as checking the time.

"Yes." She said without hesitation. "I …missed you," she heard herself blurt out honestly. "I missed you even after Harry and I started going out. You nearly drove me mad making me jealous, pointing out what I'd given up – and you loved every bloody minute of it. You enjoyed making me as miserable as possible."

"Were you really that surprised?"

"I…cared about you, you know…and I almost told you, then..."

He watched her boredly, but there was sharpness in his eyes that told her she'd gotten his attention. "Why didn't you?'

"It doesn't really matter now – " she began, angry with herself for saying what she had. "I can't keep going on about it."

"Tell me." 

Ginny blinked and looked down at her hands ruefully. "What is it about you that always makes me talk as if I don't have a brain in my head?"

"The same thing about you that makes me think things I shouldn't," he responded in a too casual voice.

She closed her eyes and murmured, "I remember…you told me once, 'Don't trust anything I say. I don't care if I tell you the sky is blue, it'll end up being green.'"

"Good advice," Draco stated in a low, soft tone above her. 

"Good advice I didn't take," she told him flatly. 

After a long silence, Draco asked emotionlessly, "So what'd I do?"

Ginny raised her head to look at him with a bitter smile and a shrug. "What do you think? You got pissed at me for liking Harry and retaliated."

Draco crossed his arms. "Let me guess. I besmirched your 'good' name, as you said.."

"I suppose you could say that. It wasn't anything you hadn't done before – except that I was stupid enough to let myself care that time." Ginny took a deep breath, and brushed her curls behind her ear. 

" – and so you ran off to Potter," Draco said disdainfully. "I knew you'd do it. Eventually. When you got tired of playing."

"Playing? Is that really what you think I was doing?" Of course she knew now that was exactly what she'd been doing – but she wasn't ready yet to admit it to him.

"Wasn't it?" He moved to lean against the wall and stared straight ahead, his face showing no emotion. "You really think I don't know that you considered me second best? That you still do?"

"I _never_ thought of you as being second best!" Ginny said fiercely, trying to forestall the tirade she was sure was coming.

"Didn't you? I'll tell you exactly what you thought, what you're thinking right now, in fact. You discovered you couldn't have a future with Potter, so you automatically turn to me. Second best – and you know what, Gin? I won't ever be anybody's second choice!"

Ginny could only stare at him, seeing right through the anger he was using to hide the intense pain and sorrow he was feeling.

He went on mercilessly, his jaw muscles jumping wildly. "Did my 'death' even mean anything to you, Gin?"

Stricken by the inference that she hadn't mourned him, she lost her breath as if he'd struck her a blow in the stomach. The cruelty of his words stunned her. "I'd say I can't believe you just said that, but…" Ginny trailed off as she tried to deal with her emotional confusion. "You just keep getting worse and worse," she said finally. "You're even more hateful than I remember, if that's even a possibility."

Draco reached out and grabbed her shoulders, lowering his head to stare hard right into her eyes.

"You're wrong. I can be worse than I have been – much worse. Didn't I prove myself to you in your future, Ginny? Everything I touch goes bad…want me to prove it to you again?"

"I care about you," she said impulsively. "There's nothing bad about that." 

 Something vague moved across his eyes, and then he turned and walked away. 

"Draco – meet me in the library after classes. We'll…we'll figure something out," she called after his retreating figure.

He didn't bother to answer.

~*~

TBC

(Next: Ginny gets terribly clever – resulting in? Furious Faeries!!! Eeep! ^_^)


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